r the Day of Judgment. And now, as they
gathered round the fish, the fowl, the ham, the cake, the preserves, the
tea, the wines and the spirits, etiquette demanded that they should be
cheerful, should show a resignation to the will of heaven, and should
eat heartily. And although the rapid-ticking clock on the mantelpiece in
the parlour pointed only to a little better than three o'clock they were
obliged to eat heartily, for fear of giving pain to Uncle Meshach; to
drink much was not essential, but nothing could have excused abstention
from the solid fare. The repast, actively conducted by the mourning
host, was not finished until nearly half-past four. Then Twemlow and the
doctor said that they must leave.

'Nay, nay,' Meshach complained. 'There's the will to be read. It's right
and proper as all the guests should hear the will, and it'll take nobbut
a few minutes.'

The enfeebled old man talked more and more the dialect which his father
and mother had talked over his cradle.

'Better without us, old friend!' the doctor said jauntily. 'Besides, my
patients!' And by dint of blithe obstinacy he managed to get away, and
also to cover the retreat of Twemlow.

'I shall call in a day or two,' said Arthur to Uncle Meshach as they
shook hands.

'Ay! call and see th' old ruin!' Meshach replied, and dropping back
into his chair, 'Now, Dain!' he ordered.

David Dain drew a long white envelope from his breast pocket.

'"This is the last will and testament of me, Hannah Margaret Myatt,"'
the lawyer began to read quickly in his thick voice, '"of Church Street,
Bursley, in the county of Stafford, spinster. I commit my body to the
grave and my soul to God in the sure hope of a blessed resurrection
through my Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ. I bequeath ten pounds each to
my dear nephew John Stanway, and to his wife Leonora, to purchase
mourning at my decease, and five pounds each for the same purpose to my
dear great-nephew Frederick Wellington Ryley, and to my great-nieces
Ethel, Rosalys, and Millicent Stanway, and to any other children of the
said John and Leonora Stanway should they have such, and should such
children survive me." This will is dated twelve years ago,' the lawyer
stopped to explain. He continued: '"I further bequeath to my
great-nephew Frederick Wellington Ryley the sum of two hundred and fifty
pounds."'

'Something for you there, Frederick Wellington Ryley!' exclaimed Stanway
in a frigid tone, biting his th